Category: Muslim Defense Project

We, the NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project, condemn the racist law enforcement practices at the core of the NYPD’s stop and frisk program, currently being challenged by our colleagues at the Center for Constitutional Rights in Floyd v. City of New York. We join the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC) and the Islamic Leadership Council (Majlis ash-Shura) in their call for community-led change of the NYPD. The NYPD’s stop and frisk program, like its well-documented mapping and surveillance program of Muslim New Yorkers, criminalizes entire communities based only on racial or religious identity.Continue reading 'NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project Calls for an End to NYPD’s “Stop and Frisk”'»

We, the NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project, voice our deep concern about the treatment and health of political prisoner Lynne Stewart, and urge prison authorities to move quickly to provide the cancer treatment she needs. For more than three years, Lynne, who is 73 years old, has been held at the Carswell Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, thousands of miles away from her family and community in New York City.

As members of the radical legal community, we will not allow the government to silence Lynne and isolate her case from public discourse. While the government has attempted to use her case to instill fear in others who defend the oppressed and advocate for dignity and human rights, we recognize Lynne as among the ranks of freedom fighters who do not stand down in the face of government repression of marginalized groups. She has dared to speak out for them.

Throughout her legal career, Lynne defended those who so many had abandoned: Muslims, people of color, and those individuals the government labeled “terrorists.” Lynne did not shy away from placing her clients’ cases in the larger political context under which they occurred, under the umbrella of the U.S. government’s war on terror used to justify the occupation and complete dismantling of entire countries in the Muslim world, to justify larger police and military defense budgets and funding of the prison industrial complex. Sadly, her own case became an example of government overreach and vindictiveness–from the political motivations compelling her prosecution to judicial coercion of an unduly harsh punishment.

Even while fighting her appeal, she has never stopped devoting her time to helping others; she spends these days supporting and advocating for other women imprisoned with her. She continues to speak out in support of human rights and radical causes from the confines of her own cell.

We demand that Lynne not only receive the immediate treatment she needs, but call on her peers in the progressive and radical community to continue to stand by her. We cannot forget the larger context within which Lynne’s own targeting and incarceration take place, i.e., as a restraint on us to provide zealous advocacy to those who the government has marked as its enemies. For her courage and strength to defend and fight for others at the expense of her own liberty, we are forever indebted to our freedom fighter Lynne Stewart and send our solidarity and love in this time of struggle.

The Muslim Defense Project (MDP) of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-NYC) was formed to combat the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that have created a comprehensive system of illegal surveillance, predatory prosecutions, and the targeting of entire Muslim communities — in New York City and beyond. We stand in solidarity, as members of these communities and their allies, to seek the elimination of laws that enable the discrimination of Muslims. We will arm our communities with the knowledge and information they need to protect themselves. We will put our legal skills to use defending those who have fallen prey to predatory prosecutions. We recognize that community ties through trust and activism have been under attack over the past several years, and we endeavor to safeguard and build those precious relationships. Through organizing and activism, we seek to build a strong front by developing alliances with other communities who have also been the subject of the government’s repression. Together, we will fight this government onslaught on our fundamental rights — as history has taught us that the rights of one community or individual belong to us all.

NEW YORK (November 24, 2012) – The Muslim Defense Project (MDP) of the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-NYC) condemns Israel for its continuing occupation of and its current attacks on Gaza. We furthermore condemn the Obama administration for its seemingly blind obedience to Israel’s cynical, illegal, and ultimately genocidal position towards the Palestinian people.

The current cease-fire does not diminish the destruction and death Israeli forces brought to Gaza nor does it address the root cause of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which is Israel’s 45-year-long colonial project of occupation. The current Israeli terror campaign against Gaza has seen the killing of dozens of children, as well as the targeting of critical infrastructure, media outlets, and the bombing of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp. The atrocities will continue so long as Israel remains committed to an agenda of the occupation and subjugation of the Palestinian people.Continue reading 'NLG-NYC Muslim Defense Project Condemns Israel for Continued Occupation of Gaza'»

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